PRIMA VISIO, cap. II
The Fiery Life That Fills All Things
The divine voice reveals itself as the fiery life that kindles, orders, and sustains every living thing in creation.
I am the highest and fiery force, and I have kindled all the living sparks, yet I have breathed forth nothing mortal; rather, I judge those things as they are, circling the circle with my higher wings — that is, flying around with wisdom, I have rightly ordered it. But I, the fiery life of the divine substance's being, flame over the beauty of the fields, and I shine in the waters, and I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars; and with the airy wind, by a certain invisible life that sustains all things, I rouse all things vitally. For the air lives in greenness and in flowers; the waters flow as if they were alive; the sun too lives in its own light, and when the moon comes to its eclipse from the sun's light, it is kindled, so that it may live again, as it were; and the stars also shine brightly in their own light, as if by living. I have also established the columns that hold together the whole globe of the earth; likewise, those winds that have wings subjected to them — namely, the gentler winds — which sustain the stronger ones with their own gentleness, so that they do not show themselves with danger, just as the body covers and contains the soul, so that it does not breathe its last. Just as the soul's breath gathers the body together by strengthening it, so that it does not fail, so too the stronger winds animate the ones subjected to them, so that they may fittingly perform their own duty. I therefore, a fiery force, lie hidden in these things, and they themselves burn with a flame from me, just as the breath continually moves a human being, and as a windy flame is in fire. All these things live in their own essence, nor are they found in death, because I am life. I am also rationality, having the wind of the sounding Word through which every creature was made; and I have breathed into all these things, so that none of them is mortal in its own kind, because I am life.
Rooted in God: Life, Word, and Image
All life is rooted in God, who works through rationality and made humanity in his image to share in his creative purpose.
I am the whole life, intact: once cut off from stones it is not restored, and it does not sprout again from branches, and it does not take root from man's strength, but everything that has life is rooted in me. For rationality is the root, and the sounding word blooms within it. So since God is rational, how could it happen that he would not work, since every work of his flourishes through and through — the one he made in his own image and likeness, and marked all creatures according to the measure found in man himself. In eternity it was always God's will that his work — that is, man — should be made; and when he completed that same work, he gave all creatures to him, so that he might work with them with them, just as God himself had made his work, that is, man.
One Life in Three Powers
The one divine life, eternal and self-moving, exists in three powers mirrored in the human constitution of body, soul, and rationality.
But I am also one who serves, since all things that have life burn from me; and I am an equal life in eternity, which neither came into being nor will come to an end, and this same life, moving and working of itself, is God — and yet this one life is in three powers. Eternity, therefore, is the Father; the Word is the Son; and the breath that binds these two together is called the Holy Spirit — just as God also marked, in the human being, in whom there are body, soul, and rationality.
The Vision Interpreted: Earth, Soul, and Reason
The earlier vision is decoded: the fields, waters, sun, moon, and stars symbolize the body, soul, and rationality of the human being.
And that I flame out over the beauty of the fields — this is the earth, which is the material from which God made man; and that I shine in the waters — this pertains to the soul, because just as water floods the whole earth, so the soul passes through the whole body; and that I burn in the sun and in the moon — this is rationality; and the stars are the countless words of rationality. And that I quicken all things with life-giving power through the airy wind, a certain invisible life that sustains everything — this means that through air and wind the things that advance in growth stand firm, quickened and removed from nothingness into what they are.
Grace Restores What the Fall Destroyed
God marked every creature in humanity and, after the fall, restored that human being through the grace of incarnation to the blessedness lost by the fallen angel.
In that God, in humankind made to his own image and likeness, marked every creature with its purpose, and after the fall restored that human being — through sheer lovingkindness of grace, by his own incarnation — back into the blessedness that the fallen angel had lost, and because this is now shown through the mystical meaning of the vision here prescribed.
Read the original Latin
Ego summa et ignea vis, quae omnes viventes scintillas accendi, et nulla mortalia efflavi, sed illa dijudico ut sunt, circumeuntem circulum cum superioribus pennis meis, id est cum sapientia circumvolans, recte ipsum ordinavi. Sed et ego ignea vita substantiae divinitatis super pulchritudinem agrorum flammo, et in aquis luceo, atque in sole, luna et stellis ardeo, et cum aereo vento quadam invisibili vita, quae cuncta sustinet, vitaliter omnia suscito. Aer enim in viriditate et in floribus vivit, aquae fluunt, quasi vivant; sol etiam in lumine suo vivit, et cum luna ad defectum venerit a lumine solis accenditur, ut quasi denuo vivat; stellae quoque in lumine suo velut vivendo clarescunt. Columnas etiam quae totum orbem terrarum continent constitui; item ventos illos qui pennas sibi subditas, scilicet leniores ventos, habent, qui lenitate sua ipsis fortiores sustinent, ne cum periculo se ostendant, quemadmodum corpus animam tegit et continet, ne exspiret. Sicut etiam spiramen animae corpus firmando colligit, ut non deficiat, sic quoque fortiores venti sibi subjectos animant, ut officium suum congruenter exerceant. Ego itaque vis ignea in his lateo, ipsique de me flagrant, velut spiramen assidue hominem movet, et ut in igne ventosa flamma est. Haec omnia in essentia sua vivunt, nec in morte inventa sunt, quoniam ego vita sum. Rationalitas etiam sum, ventum sonantis verbi habens, per quod omnis creatura facta est, et in omnia haec sufflavi, ita ut nullum eorum in genere suo mortale sit, quia ego vita sum.
Integra namque vita sum, quae de lapidibus abscissa non est, et de ramis non fronduit, et de virili vi non radicavit, sed omne vitale de me radicatum est. Rationalitas enim radix est, sonans vero verbum in ipsa floret. Unde cum Deus rationalis sit, quomodo fieri posset ut non operaretur, cum omne opus ipsius perfloreat, quem ad imaginem et similitudinem suam fecit, et omnes creaturas secundum mensuram in ipso homine signavit. In aeternitate namque semper fuit, quod Deus opus suum, scilicet hominem, fieri voluit, et cum idem opus perfecit, omnes creaturas ut cum ipsis operaretur ei dedit, quemadmodum etiam ipse Deus opus suum, id est hominem, fecerat. Sed et officialis sum, quoniam omnia vitalia de me ardent; et aequalis vita in aeternitate sum, quae nec orta est, nec finietur, eademque vita se movens et operans Deus est, et tamen haec vita una in tribus viribus est. Aeternitas itaque Pater, Verbum Filius; spiramen haec duo connectens Spiritus sanctus dicitur, sicut etiam Deus in homine, in quo corpus, anima et rationalitas sunt, signavit. Quod autem super pulchritudinem agrorum flammo, hoc terra est, quae materia illa est de qua Deus hominem fecit; et quod in aquis luceo, hoc secundum animam est; quia, sicut aqua totam terram perfundit, ita anima totum corpus pertransit; quod vero in sole et in luna ardeo, hoc rationalitas est; stellae autem innumerabilia verba rationalitatis sunt. Et quod cum aereo vento quadam invisibili vita, quae cuncta sustinet, vitaliter omnia suscito, hoc est, quoniam aere et vento ea quae in incremento procedunt, vegetata subsistunt a nihilo remota in id quod sunt.
Quod in homine ad imaginem et similitudinem suam facto, omnem creaturam Deus signavit, et eum post lapsum ex sola benignitatis charitate per incarnationem suam reparatum in beatitudine, quam prolapsus augelus perdiderat, collocaverit, et quia hoc mystica praescriptae visionis significatione monstretur.
Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works) companion
Don't stop at Day 30
All 317 chapters live in the free Chosen Portion app, paced for daily reading
Hildegard's practice of daily attention to God's work in creation becomes a paced daily devotional through all ten visions in the Chosen Portion app
- One vision passage a day, readable in under 10 minutes
- The complete Book of Divine Works plus Hildegard's other major works, free
- Progress tracking so a 317-chapter classic actually gets finished